Mark Pryor

Mark Lunsford Pryor (10 January 1963-) was a US Senator from Arkansas (D) from 3 January 2003 to 3 January 2015, succeeding Tim Hutchinson and preceding Tom Cotton. Pryor had previously served as Attorney General of Arkansas from 12 January 1999 to 3 January 2003, succeeding Winston Bryant and preceding Mike Beebe.

Biography
Mark Lunsford Pryor was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas on 10 January 1963, the son of Governor and Senator David Pryor. He received his degrees from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and he worked as a private attorney for years. In 1990, he was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives, representing the 57th district. In 1995, he left the House, and he was elected Attorney General in 1998. In 2001, Pryor announced his candidacy for the US Senate as a Democratic Party candidate, running for the same seat that his father had held from 1979 to 1997. He won with 54% of the vote, and he was re-elected with no Republican Party opposition in 2008. He voted for the repeal of the estate tax, supported Obamacare, opposed troop withdrawals from Iraq, supported embryonic stem cell research, opposed partial-birth abortions, supported the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", voted in favor of an assault weapons ban, and voted against background checks for gun purchasers. Pryor also. served as the Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance. He lost to Tom Cotton during the 2014 senatorial election, losing with just 39.4% of the vote.